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Pavel Kulisek: a Canadian in a Mexican jail on drug charges
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by Amy Judd | April 28, 2009 at 04:17 pm
1319 views | 2 Recommendations | 2 comments
Pavel Kulisek is a man who is currently in jail in a maximum security prison near Guadalajara, Mexico, but no one seems to be sure exactly why he is there. He has been there for over a year, in a jail cell underground, but his family is saying that they are receiving no help from the Canadian Government to set him free.
Pavel and his wife Jirina are originally from the Czech Republic, but they immigrated to Vancouver, Canada 20 years ago, where Pavel built a building contracting company. They decided one summer to go on a family holiday and so they bought an RV and planned to spend a few months traveling around Mexico.
They went down the west coast to Baja, but they loved the little town of Los Barriles so much that they decided to stay there and they enrolled their two daughters in school there. Pavel was also able to indulge his passion for off-road vehicles there and he was even preparing for the Baja 300 competition, when he met Carlos Herrera.
According to Jirina, her first impression of Carlos was that he was a man like Pavel, "a family-oriented man. He had four little children, always talking about his children and his wife."
The two families spent some time together. Pavel and Carlos indulged in their love of dirt biking together.
But within weeks of meeting, Pavel's life would change dramatically. One evening, Pavel received a phone call from Carlos saying that he was with a mutual acquaintance, Eduardo. As Eduardo was someone he owed money to for construction supplies, Pavel hopped onto his ATV and sped off to pay him. Jirina expected it would be a brief meeting, but Pavel never returned home.
Jirina called his cellphone until morning when she went looking for him and after calling the Canadian Consulate, she was finally able to find about that Pavel and Carlos, and Eduardo had been arrested in Mexico City on drug charges.
It turns out that Carlos was actually Gustavo Rivera Herrera, one of the top men in the Tijuana Drug Cartel, and Eduardo was Marcos Assemat Hernandez, a former cop, now corrupt and a member of the same cartel. Pavel was arrested because he was with the men when they arrived at where the cops were watching them.
The police thought he was part of the same gang.
Pavel has never been in trouble with the law in any country, and his clean record was confirmed by the RCMP.
Jirina returned to Vancouver with her daughters to campaign for her husband's release, but so far she has had no luck. Pavel only has one seven minute phone call a week with his family.
The Mexican government is under a lot of pressure to beat the war on drugs but there are some that think this could lead to mistaken identities and false arrests.
According to Pavel's Canadian lawyer, Guillermo Cruz, that is why his client is still in jail. "The State has to fight with all the strength against organized crime. But in my case, I believe that innocent people have to pay the consequences of this policy," said Cruz, who firmly believes his client is innocent.
Cruz showed W-FIVE what's called an Auto de plazo constitutional, a document which summarizes all the evidence that the judge believes is relevant to the case -- and reveals the allegations against Pavel Kulisek.
According to the document, the case against Pavel started with an anonymous phone call and then continued with information provided by a protected witness, a corrupt former police officer who seemingly bartered evidence to save himself. That former cop and now protected witness was Macos Assemat Hernandez -- the man Pavel knew as Eduardo.
Claiming that he was introduced to Pavel by the alleged drug kingpin Gustavo Rivera Herrera, Hernandez accused Pavel of collaborating with Herrera to obtain properties that could be used as safe houses. But under cross examination, Hernandez admitted that he had never seen Pavel commit any crime and that Pavel didn't even know the former cop's real name.
His wife is trying to take matters in to her own hands, by staging protests, but her cries often fall on deaf ears.
Cases like Pavel's however, have become more of the norm than the exception.
Human Rights Watch lawyer Tamara Taraciuk, says that the Mexican justice system is really dysfunctional.
Though torture is illegal in Mexico, confessions extracted by torture are admissible in court. "In general terms, judges accept coerced confessions as evidence at trial." Continuing, Taraciuk said: "A prosecutor finds it much easier to beat a confession out of someone and use that as evidence to build a case rather than carry out a thorough and reliable investigation."
Even the Mexican Ambassador to Canada, Francisco Barrio, will not comment on the case.
According to Human Rights Watch, in Mexico, over 40 percent of people in jail have not been convicted of a crime.
Pavel's family have turned to the Canadian government for help but they are saying that they can only have faith in the Mexican justice system.
"The Mexican justice system is what the Mexican justice system is. But his case is proceeding."
Canada will not interfere in another country's legal system and at the moment, they are making one visit every five weeks to Pavel in prison.
His family is left wondering if this is enough.
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (2)
at 15:11 on May 5th, 2009
This is a story that should be read by all as it's a true human story of a man who just sits in a Mexican Prison waiting for a trial and charges that haven't even been laid against him. Meanwhile the Canadian government has refused to do anything about it...Shame on our government as this man is a Canadian and deserves to be back home with his family.
at 17:38 on May 20th, 2009
Please release Pavel, I will contact my MP about this matter.